I think we’re often spoiled by Grace, and it makes me wonder, at times, if we’re (in this condition) saved by it. We don’t share the Gospel, for one. Think about it, when was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone? And yet, we’ve probably told someone all about a show, or a recipe, or a new “life hack” that’s changed our lives, or posted on social media about our kids or grandkids, or some trend that we tried that actually worked (or didn’t). If Jesus said that we’d know a tree by its fruits (and he did), what fruit is your life producing? Fruit in accordance with the Spirit, or the same fruit that every other person in the world is producing?
I say all of this because I see it in Scripture, and, indeed, all over the world even today (by people I know personally), that Jesus is RADICALLY changing people. It’s something unlike any fad or trend: people were one way, then they were changed! And they can’t stop talking about the One who did it: Jesus! And this is the simplicity of the Gospel: all of us are trapped by our sin. It’s (mostly) our own making, but other sinners have also contributed to our delinquency. We are self-seeking, desiring after gratification rather than contentment, and there’s no end in sight. And because of our sin (our rebellion and seeking after ourselves), we deserve to die.
But God sent His Son to live as one of us. And Jesus did! In every way, He became human, and was tempted in every way and did not sin, even suffering in His temptations (Hebrews 2 and 4!). God can relate to us on a personal level, because He put human skin on, and walked as one of us! Jesus, in His humanity, fulfilled every righteous requirement of God, every point of the Law, even though He suffered in His temptation, and offered Himself up in our place, being tortured, and brutally executed on a murderer’s cross. He bore the wrath of God on Himself, taking on all the sin of the whole world, and destroying it by His blood, paying the penalty that we owed. He died and was buried, and on the third day rose again, conquering the consequence of sin, Death. In Him, we can have a new life now (as is evident in those who have come to Him and been regenerated), and be made perfect in His presence in the time to come.
If your life has not been changed by this, drop to your knees and ask God for transformation. Perhaps this was you in the beginning, but you’ve fallen into the routine. Loved ones, Jesus is still raising the dead. He’s still bringing His Holy Spirit to live inside of people. Get in on it! Follow Jesus, be Born Again, and if you’ve not been, crucify yourself with Christ, be buried with Him in Baptism, and walk, raised from death to life in Him today!
John 3:1-21
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
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